Abstract

Behcet's disease (BD) is a systemic vasculitis of unknown aetiology characteristically affecting venules. Onset is typically in young adults with recurrent oral and genital ulceration, uveitis, skin manifestations, arthritis, neurological involvement, acneiform lesions and a tendency to thrombosis. BD especially has a more severe course in men. This finding may be regarded as evidence that a contribution of sex hormones to the aetiopathogenesis of BD seems likely. We investigated which effect of sex hormones on the pathogenesis of BD. Serum sex hormones were measured in 16 male patients with active BD, and 20 male healthy volunteers. We found that dihydrepiandrosterone sulphate, (DHEAS), total testosterone and androstenedione levels in patients with clinically active BD, were not significantly higher than control group.